Method of and means for starting internal combustion engines



Feb. 5, 1 963 G. 1. W000, JR, :ET AL 3,07

ME'I'HQD 'UF AND MEANS FOR STARTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES 2 Sheets-Sheet l ghwenlors Geo 13 A. Wood 6 29 29 9:

Feb. 5, 1963 3,076,448

METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR STARTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES Filed Sept. .19, 1960 G. I. WOOD, JR. ETA].

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 flnvenlom e43. Wood a $12 961 ('3. gla 1 '7 M M4 elll'r rgy United States Patent Ofilice.

3,076,448 Patented Feb. 5,, '1963 3,076,448 METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR STARTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES George I. Wood, Jr., and Floyd C. Egley, Des Moines,

Iowa, assignors to Western Tool and Stamping Company, Des Moines, Iowa, a corporation of Iowa Filed Sept. 19, 1960, Ser. No. 56,946 4- Claims. (Cl. 123-179) This invention relate to the method of and means for starting internal combustion engines and more particularly to the winding up of the spring starting means of internal combustion engines used on wheeled vehicles such as lawn mowers, lawn sweepers, garden cultivators and like.

In recent years most manufacturers of small internal combustion engines for use on equipment such as lawn mowers have discarded the direct rope pull starting means. Instead they equip the engine with a windable spring operatively connected to the engine, and which when released from a wound condition will spin the engine and thus start it. The winding up of the spring may be accomplished by the manual movement of a crank arm, lever pull cable or like. However, regardless of the manual means for winding the spring, much labor and time is expended to wind the spring to its maximum tension.

The most popular type of lawn mowing machine is the rotary type. However, due to the fact that the prime mover drive shaft is vertical it has herebefore been impracticable to detachably connect the mowing machine ground wheel or wheels to the starter spring for winding it to starting tension.

Therefore, one of the principal objects of our invention is to provide an easier method of winding the starting spring of internal combustion engines. More specifically the object of this invention is to provide a means for detachably securing the wind-up spring staiter of an internal combustion engine of a rotary type lawn mower to one of the ground wheels of the mower.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a means for winding the starting spring wheel supported internal combustion engines that may be accomplished merely by the pushing of the vehicle over a' supporting surface such as a lawn, walk or like.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a ground wheel operated wind-up spring starter for internal combustion engines, that will automatically disconnect the ground wheel from the wind-up spring starter means when the wind up starter has been properly wound up.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a device for winding engine starting means that is safe to operate. v i

Still further objects of our invention are to provide a means for winding the starting spring of internal combustion engines that is economical in manufacture and durable in use.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Our invention consists in the construction arrangements, and combination, of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained as hereinafter more fully set forth, specifically pointed out in our claims, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a top plan view of a rotary type mowing machine with our device installed thereon;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the spring release means taken on line 2-2 of FIG. 5;

FIG. 3 is a top plan view of the control lever on the handle portion of the mowing machine;

*FIG. 4 is a side sectional view of our installed equipment connecting the mower wheel to the spring wind-up starter;

FIG. 5 is an enlarged side view of the wind-up spring starter and control of the internal combustion engine, and

FIG. 6 is a side view of our installed equipment in a disconnected condition.

in these drawings we have used the numeral 10 to generally designate an ordinary lawn mower of the rotary type having the usual internal combustion engine 11. The lawn mower is supported by wheels 12 and usually is pushed over the ground surface. The prime mover 11 (and which rotates the mower blade, not shown) is mounted on top of the mower chassis 13 as shown in FIG. 4. The numeral 15 designates the spring actuated wind-up starter on the top of the engine and having the usual shaft 16. The numeral 17 designates a sprocket gear on the shaft 16. The shaft 19 designates the shaft operatively connected to the crank shaft of the prime mover. The numeral 24) designates a spur gear on the shaft 19. The numeral 21 designates an endless chain embracing the two spur gears 17 and 20, The specific construction and arrangement of the spring wind-up starter is not important and different internal combustion engines use different structures, different hold and release means. Some have a series of spokes 22. on a rotating unit that may be caught and held while the spring starter is being wound up, and also held until it is desired to start the engine. Such a holding and releasing structure may be accomplished by a finger 23 pivoted near its center and having a notch 25 for receiving any one of the spokes 22. The numeral 26 designates a rod having one end secured to the other end of the finger 23 and its other end connected to a crank lever 2'7 on the rear end portion of the handle bar unit 29. By this arrangement when the lever 27 is to the left, the core and shaft 16 of the starter will be held against rotation by the starter spring, but when the lever 27 is placed to the right as shown in FIG. 3 the mechanism will be accordingly released, and the starter will rotate the shaft. The wind up shaft of the starter extends rearwardly and horizontally and is designated by the numeral 29. It is to this shaft 29 that we connect our equipment, and which we will 'now describe in detail.

On the inner side of one of the rear wheels 12 of the mover, we provide a continuous circular row of spaced apart teeth rods 30 as shown in FIG. 1. The numeral 31 designates a bearing means vertically pivoted to the rear end of the mower chassis and extending rearwardly and downwardly as shown in FIG. 6. Rotatably mounted in the bearing means is a shaft 32. Operatively connected to the shaft 32 at one of its ends and connected at its other end to the shaft 29 is a flexible shaft means 33. The numeral designates a spur gear wheel on the shaft 32 capable of engaging the teeth rods 30 when the bearing means 31 is swung toward the teeth rods. Obviously when the spur gear wheel is in engagement with the teeth rods 30, the flexible shaft 33 will be rotated which in turn will rotate the shaft 29 of the spring starter and thereby wind up the spring of the starter provided the lever 27 is to the left and in crank position. Obviously some means must be provided to release the spur gear 35 from engagement with the teeth 30 as the spring of the starter reaches its maximum wind up. We use a kick-out mechanism. Extending rearwardly from the chassis 13 is a horizontal bracket 37 having a top ledge 39. Extending from the bearing means 31 is a horizontal roller bar 40. The numeral 41 designates a bar pivoted at its center to the bracket 37. This bar has on its forward underside two upwardly extending depressions 42 and 43, each capable of being engaged by the roller bar as shown in 3 FIG. 4 and FIG. 6. The numeral 44 designates a rod hinged at its lower end to the rear end of the bar 41 and having its length slidably extending through the ledge 39. Threaded on the upper end of the rod 44 is a spring tension adjusting nut 45. The numeral 46 designates a coilspring embracing the rod 44, having one end engaging the top of the ledge 39 and its other end engaging the underside of the nut 45. The numeral 47 designates a foot pedal for forcing the spur gear unit 35 into engagement with the teeth 30. To wind up the spring starter, it is therefore merely necessary to push down on the pedal 47, place the control lever 27 to the left and then push the vehicle a distance over the ground surface. The notch depression 42 will be engaging the roller 40 and the spring 46 will yieldingly maintain this connection until the spring starter is wound up. As the spring of the starter becomes taut, the reaction will overcome the spring 46, and the bearing unit 31 will kick, up and back, placing the roller 4!) in the notch depression 43, and thereby holding the bearing unit 31 and spur gear 35 in a direction away from the teeth 30. To start the prime mover, the lever 27 is movedto start position andthe spring starter will spin the internal combustion engine. After the user will, before putting the machine in storage and during the very last of the mowing phase, wind up the spring starter, so that the starter means will be ready to start the engine the next time the mower is to be used. The lawn mower will, therefore, have its spring starter already wound up the next time it is desired to use the mowing machine. Even, however, if the spring starter has not previously been wound up by engine power, it is a most easy matter to push the lawn mower a few steps to wind up the starter. This canbe done by even a child. Perhaps even more important, however, is that when the engine is actually started, the operator is at a safe distance therefrom, 'i.e., in the vicinity of the handle bars of the mowing machine.

Some changes may be made in the construction and arrangement of our method of and means for starting internal combustion engines without departing from the real spirit and purpose of our invention, and it is our intention to cover by our claims, any modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents which may be reasonably included within their scope.

we claim:

1. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting said chassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-up spring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a rotatably mounted shaft, means for operatively connecting said rotatably mounted shaft to said wheel, and a flexible shaft having one end connected to said rotatably mountedshaft and its other end connected to the wind-up shaft of said spring starter, said means automatically responsive to the full wind-up of said windup spring to disconnect said rotatably mounted shaft from said wheel.

2. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting said chassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-up spring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a rotatably mounted shaft,.relealsable means for ope'ratively connecting said rotatably mounted shaft to said wheel, and means drivingly connecting said rotatably mounted shaft to the wind-up shaft of said spring starter; said releasable means being spring loaded and automatically actuated after said spring starter has been sufiiciently wound up to disconnect said rotatably mounted shaft from said wheel.

3. In combination, a chassis, at least one wheel supporting said chassis, an internal combustion engine on said chassis having a wind-up spring starter; said starter having a wind-up shaft, a bearing means hingedly secured to said chassis and swingable toward and away from said wheel, a shaft rotatably mounted in said bearing means, a wheel means on said rotatably mounted shaft capable of operatively engaging said wheel when said bearing means is swung toward said wheel, a releasable means yieldingly holding said bearing means in either of two positions in one of which said wheel meansengages said wheel and in the other of which said wheel means is disengaged from said wheel, and a flexible shaft having one end connected to said wind-up shaftand its otherend connected to said rotatably mounted shaft; said releasable means, comprising, a projection on said bearing means, a bracket on said chassis, a bar pivoted between its two ends to said bracket, two depressions in one end portion of said bar each capable of being contactedby said projection, and a spring means on said bracket yieldingly holding said bar in a direction toward said projection, said wheel means responsive tothe winding up of said wind-up spring to force said projection out of one depression andinto the other to place said wheel means insaid other position.

4. Means for starting an internal combustion engine which is mounted uponthe wheeled chassis of a handcontrolled walking-attendant type engine powered implement, compri sing: a ground engaging wheel on the chassis of the implement to turn as the implement is manually propelled along the ground; a wind-up spring motor; means operatively connecting said spring motor with the engine and through which release of energy stored in the spring motor acts to start the engine, said spring motor being normally unwound; said spring motorhaving a windup shaft; a flexible shaft connected at one end to said wind-up shaft; a'rotatably mounted shaft connected to the other end of said flexible shaft; spring biased means manually con trollable. for operatively connecting said rotatably mounted shaft to said ground engaging wheel and'through which rotation of said wheel, as the implement is .propelled along the ground, acts to wind up the spring of the spring motor, said spring biased means automatically movable in response toa full wind-up of the spring of the spring motor to effect an operative disconnection of said rotatably mounted shaft with the ground engaging wheel; and manually controlled means to effect release of the energy stored in the spring motor.

Refereiices Cited in the file of this atent UNITED STATES PATENTS 

3. IN COMBINATION, A CHASSIS, AT LEAST ONE WHEEL SUPPORTING SAID CHASSIS, AN INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE ON SAID CHASSIS HAVING A WIND-UP SPRING STARTER; SAID STARTER HAVING A WIND-UP SHAFT, A BEARING MEANS HINGEDLY SECURED TO SAID CHASSIS AND SWINGABLE TOWARD AND AWAY FROM SAID WHEEL, A SHAFT ROTATABLY MOUNTED IN SAID BEARING MEANS, A WHEEL MEANS ON SAID ROTATABLY MOUNTED SHAFT CAPABLE OF OPERATIVELY ENGAGING SAID WHEEL WHEN SAID BEARING MEANS IS SWUNG TOWARD SAID WHEEL, A RELEASABLE MEANS YIELDINGLY HOLDING SAID BEARING MEANS IN EITHER OF TWO POSITIONS IN ONE OF WHICH SAID WHEEL MEANS ENGAGES SAID WHEEL AND IN THE OTHER OF WHICH SAID WHEEL MEANS IS DISENGAGED FROM SAID WHEEL, AND A FLEXIBLE SHAFT HAVING ONE END CONNECTED TO SAID WIND-UP SHAFT AND ITS OTHER END CONNECTED TO SAID ROTATABLY MOUNTED SHAFT; SAID RELEASABLE MEANS, COMPRISING, A PROJECTION ON SAID BEARING MEANS, A BRACKET ON SAID CHASSIS, A BAR PIVOTED BETWEEN ITS TWO ENDS TO SAID BRACKET, TWO DEPRESSIONS IN ONE END PORTION OF SAID BAR EACH CAPABLE OF BEING CONTACTED BY SAID PROJECTION, AND A SPRING MEANS ON SAID BRACKET YIELDINGLY HOLDING SAID BAR IN A DIRECTION TOWARD SAID PROJECTION, SAID WHEEL MEANS RESPONSIVE TO THE WINDING UP OF SAID WIND-UP SPRING TO FORCE SAID PROJECTION OUT OF ONE DEPRESSION AND INTO THE OTHER TO PLACE SAID WHEEL MEANS IN SAID OTHER POSITION. 